Two of the year's biggest news stories– the trial of George Zimmerman and the Boston Marathon bombing– were covered in very different ways in the media.

Carol sat down with Steve Malzberg from Newsmax, a conservative media watchdog group and Eric Boehlert, from Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog group to discuss the major media strategies in covering these two stories.

Brian Stelter, CNN's senior media correspondent also joined the conversation to help us quantify how this type of biased coverage can shape our culture.

soundoff(4 Responses)

drake mallard

george zimmerman assaulted a cop, twisted a women ankle at a bar, has been accused of domestic violence against his previous fiancé, stalking people,animal cruelty bullying his coworker, road rage, bullying his neighbors, se xually molested girls, spread derogatory stereotypes about Mexicans.Pulled a gun on a UPS delivery man. Was on various prescription drugs with known, violent side. Shot a unarmed kid in the heart. Who he was stalking and frustrated MAD about his wife not being in their home. No wonder he had such aggression towards "these punks that always get away".. His exact words! No wonder he pursued Trayvon. looking for an altercation.Zimmerman Hid Second Passport, Lied About Money He was mad, in a bad mood from obvious personal reasons with the wife. Accused of threatening wife and father in law as well as assaulting him, is on video trying to destroy evidence that can be used against him and so on and so forth yet. Zimmerman was involved in a situation involving domestic violence with a gun on new girlfriend. Scheibe’s daughter received a text message from George Zimmerman. Mason said that message was a still image from an intimate home video of Scheibe I guess for many people the man can do no wrong. No wonder he seems to feel like he can get away with anything, for the most part it seems like he can.
v
I don't begin to understand it. He's not just a hypothetical loose cannon–he's already killed once. I believe he's being enabled into taking another life, because the only message he's gotten from the law or the courts is that there are no real consequences. In fact, he's in worse trouble for breaking a glass table top with a gun (presumably the handle/butt) than he was for shooting an unarmed teenage boy. A random table is worth more than a kid's life. So of course he's going to rage on, until he crosses a line in a huge way, and every bit of what's happened since that shooting is the fault of a legal system (in Florida) which has come to enable sociopaths.”

The U.S. judicial system in America is the best in the world, but humans are flawed-which means a group of 12 people(the usual jury) can have biases as a group-and in the Zimmerman jury, there were only 6 jury members-which lowered the odds of 'getting it right'....The news coverage was good-the verdict was less than ideal

December 30, 2013 at 10:40 am |

John

The American news media is divided because today's reporters consider themselves not just reporters but media stars who would rather promote their own point of view, usually by spinning the news to their fans than stating it factually. They bear significant responsibility for the political divisions within the country. It's neither as "right" as the lefties say nor as "left" as the righties say. The BBC, where the news is "read," does a more reliable job.

December 31, 2013 at 7:10 pm |

John Lovinger

Something is missing from the coverage of Obamas immigration policies. Namely, Ted Cruz speaks of his "lawlessness", is he not aware that in 2008 a Republican congress and a Republican president passed a law stating children covered by this law CANNOT be sent home without a lengthy process to determine their status. This process can take up to two years. This is the law President Obama is following. {Reference article by Eugene Robinson at eugenerobinson@washpost.com} published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on 7-13-14. John

July 18, 2014 at 10:42 am |

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